1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for managing groups of virtual and physical servers, and more particularly, to managing multiple Virtual Execution Environments implemented on multiple physical servers.
2. Description of Related Art
The industry trend of virtualization and isolation of computer system resources makes the task of management and administration more complex. A Virtual Execution Environment (VEE), such as, for example, Virtual Environment (VE) or Virtual Machine (VM) is a type of an isolated VEE where multiple VEEs run on the same physical server simultaneously. Each VE/VM instance executes its own applications. It can also have access to other applications within the VEE.
Typically, there are multiple VEEs created on a host operating system. In such system, applications running within one VEE cannot directly interact with applications running within other VEEs. An example of this type of system is computing environment provided by VMware™. The VMware™ solution provides standardized isolated secured computing environments. This product is typically used as an enterprise level solution. The management application provided to a user creates a centralized configuration server, which updates configurations for all distributed VMware™ Virtual Machines. Some of the most critical parameters controlled by the configuration server are: access to the VMs through user groups and Active Directories, lifetime of each VM, protection of VM from copying or reproduction, network access from each VM, etc.
The VMware™ solution, such as VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3), provides management of multiple VEEs (i.e., VEs or VMs). This product includes management tools for a virtualization solution for an IT infrastructure. VMware's VI3 virtualizes server's hardware environment. The product's key features include the VirtualCenter management agent, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler and VMotion. VMotion allows to migrate VEEs (i.e., VEs or VMs) from one physical host server to another physical host server. The migration process is implemented between servers without interruption in availability of the VEEs during migration. Technical requirements for this migration process are that the physical hosts need to have access to the same storage area and that they need to have the same network connections. However, VMotion Technology cannot be implemented between CPUs of a different type.
The VMware™ ACE solution provides isolated computing environments. The VMware™ application provides a user with a special configuration server that stores the configuration settings for the VMs. All of the distributed ACE VMs access this server for updating their configuration settings. One of the main parameters controlled by policies in this case is management of user access to the VMs via user permissions and users' group Active Directory. Other controlled parameters are a life-span of each VM from the point of its activation, protection of each VM from copying and network access from each of the distributed VMs.
Another example of a conventional centralized management system is IBM Director, which is a system for remote management and administration. The IBM Director tool allows system administrators to monitor a computer system, collect diagnostic data and remotely configure the system using IBM Director management console. However, the IBM Director also does not provide any means for management of multiple VEEs implemented on multiple servers.
Yet another example of a conventional server management system is HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM). HP SIM provides a centralized utility for managing servers. This utility controls a state of the servers, detects service interruptions and server shut downs, provides monitoring and diagnostics of various server subsystems. HP SIM, like other conventional management systems discussed above, does not meet the needs of virtualization. None of the conventional management systems provide centralized management of multiple VEEs implemented on multiple physical servers.
Virtualization allows running a number of VEEs on the same physical server. Examples of conventional virtualization solutions are virtual systems by VMware, Parallels Software International, Inc., Microsoft Virtual Server, Microsoft/Citrix Terminal Server, Virtuozzo™ by SWSoft, Xen systems by XenSource, Solaris Zones etc. The problem of management and administration of a large set of services and servers for many users is widely known, especially to administrators of web hosting companies and data centers. Each routine operation often requires expensive manual operations, and, when handling thousands of users even on single hardware box with a single operating system, each simple operation, which should be performed hundreds and thousands of times, becomes very expensive. Centralization and simplification of management and administration operations therefore can result in a significant economical benefit.
Thus, centralized management and administration of multiple VEs implemented on multiple physical servers becomes exceedingly critical. A robust server management system is especially important in multi-user systems, such as VE systems. In addition to maintaining efficient allocation of resources, providing multi-user access in a Virtual Execution Environment involves other considerations as well, including security, resource sharing and maximizing server system efficiency. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for effective centralized management of multiple VEEs implemented on multiple physical servers.